RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Critical role of the capsaicin-sensitive nerve fibers in the development of the causalgic symptoms produced by transecting some but not all of the nerves innervating the rat tail
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 4133
OP 4139
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.15-06-04133.1995
VO 15
IS 6
A1 YI Kim
A1 HS Na
A1 JS Han
A1 SK Hong
YR 1995
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/15/6/4133.abstract
AB We investigated the role of capsaicin-sensitive small diameter fibers in the development of the thermal and mechanical allodynia in a new rat model for neuropathic pain, produced by transecting some but not all of the nerves innervating the tail. Capsaicin (50 mg/kg, s.c.) injected neonatally prior to the nerve injury produced thermal hypoalgesia in the tail the degree of which was variable across individual rats, presumably as a result of variable degeneration of the small diameter fibers. When subjected to the nerve injury, the animals with moderate thermal hypoalgesia exhibited signs of pain (e.g., tail flick) to normally innocuous mechanical stimuli applied to the tail with von Frey hairs (4.9 mN or 19.6 mN bending force), but not to thermal stimuli given by immersion of the tail into cold (4 degrees C) or warm (40 degrees C) water. The animals with marked thermal hypoalgesia, on the other hand, exhibited no signs of pain either to the mechanical or to the thermal stimuli. These results suggest that the capsaicin-sensitive fibers are critical in the development of both the mechanical and thermal allodynia. It is hypothesized that the destruction of A delta- and C-nociceptive fibers by capsaicin prevented activities induced in these fibers by the nerve injury from producing a central sensitization and thus allodynia.